Writing advertizing sign



WRITING ADVERTIZING SIGN James D. Thompson, New York, N. Y. Application August 9, 1954, Serial No. 448,732. 7 Claims. c1. 40-137 This invention relates to a highway reflecting sign especially for advertizing which creates the illusion of writing the name of a product, etc., as the said sign is approached.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide an advertizing sign or part of an advertizing sign which though stationary creates the illusion of writing when the sign is approached at night.

Among other objects of the invention is to provide a stationary sign having reflecting portions which come into view according to a definite prearranged plan as the sign is approached in an automobile at night with the lights turned on.

Among other objects of the invention is to provide a novel sign which requires no power to operate and no bearings for movement thereof but which at night appears to be lighted and to be in motion.

These objects and others ancillary thereto are obtained by providing a highway sign with one or more related series of projecting portions in which the angle which one side of each projecting portion makes with the plane of the sign is slightly greater than the angle made by the same side of the preceding projecting portion of the series and is slightly less than the angle made by the same side of the succeeding projecting portion of the series. Each of the said angled sides are employed to fix a piece of reflecting material, at the angles thereof. The sign is positioned with respect to the highway so that when the sign first becomes visible only the first of the series of sides receives and reflects light, the remainder of the sides of said series having only an edge exposed to the view of the approaching motorist. As the viewer approaches the sign the remainder of the sides of the projecting series becomes visible one by one so as to provide the illusion that the sign is writing. When one is almost opposite the side of the signs he will see all the sides of the projections simultaneously. The projections may take the form of blocks secured to the sign, stamped out portions, etc.

The reflecting material employed for the sign is not only capable of reflecting light directly back to a point source such as a plane mirror but also reflects such light back at angles up to 65 away from the original source. Materials which contain a multiplicity of microscopic glass beads in their structure have this property. A very satisfactory reflecting material is the paper backed material capable of approximately 25 of angled reflection sold under the trademark of Scotchlite. The sign may be employed to produce the eflect of writing words, drawing designs, characters, etc.

Instead of a plurality of series of separate projections one or more extended projections having a gradually changing side angle may be employed. The difference in angles between two adjacent members of a series of projections may be very minute sometimes amounting to a matter of an angular difference of a few minutes.

The invention both as to its organization and its method of operation together with additional objects and advantages thereof will best be understood from the 01- lowing description of specific embodiments thereof when read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing how the sign operates.

Figs. la to 1e are views showing what is seen in the positions of Fig. l.

Fig. 2 is a front view of a one letter sign made according to the invention.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a side detail view of one of the blocks of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a side detail view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a modified form of block.

Fig. 6 is a partial view of a modified form of sign made according to the invention.

Fig. 7 is a partial view of still another modified form of sign made according to the invention.

Fig. 8 is a modified form of large sign made according to the invention.

The operation of the sign of the invention is illustrated in Fig. l and Figs. la to la. In position 1 a car It) approaching sign 20 will see reflections only from the portion 21 of the sign 20. As car reached position 2 the portion 22 of sign also becomes visible and portion 21 remains visible. At position 3 the reflected portion is shown in Fig. 10, at position 4 the reflected portion is shown in Fig. 1d, etc. It will be noted that sign 20 is not at right angles with respect to the direction of the car.

Figs. 2 and 3 show a sign 30 containing only the letter M, in script, which is adapted to operate like the sign 20 of Fig. 1. This sign 30 has a backing member 31 to which are fastened a plurality of blocks 32-77, each of the blocks being numbered to show the sequence of the series. Each of the blocks contains on its left hand side edge a piece of reflecting material 80. The blocks may take any form, they may be large enough to show a complete sign in daylight or small enough to be almost invisible. The block 32 of Fig. 4, for example, has the side edge 81' which is at an angle of about 30 degrees with respect to the lower edge 82 or the plane of the backing member 31. If one looks at the sign of Fig. 2 the end edges (corresponding to end edge 83 of Fig. 4) of all of the reflecting parts are exposed. However, there is no appreciable reflection from the end edges of such materials; beyond the region where theing material is employed) the reflecting surface appears lighted. It will be noted that although the blocks 32-77 are themselves rather narrow, the reflecting material 80 extends for a considerable distance beyond the narrow borders of the blocks 32-77 so that the reflecting material forms a substantially continuous line. The sign of Fig. 2 is made to be placed at an angle of less than to the road as shown in Fig. 1 so that fewer of the blocks expose their side surfaces containing the reflective material. As one passes to the left of the sign of Fig. 2, however, the various blocks 32-77 have their side surfaces lighted in order by light reflected from the lights of an approaching car and will appear to be writing with light. It should be noted that the sign could be placed on either side of a road. The fact that Paitented Apr. 1958 3 is not thick enough the modified form of construction shown in Fig. 5 may be employed. In this modification the block 32 contains an end surface 81 to hold reflector 80 and inaddition twov slots 84 and 85 which hold the reflecting. bodies 80' and respectively.

Also, instead of aflixing blocks to the backing member 31 a' backing member 131 containing stamped-out portions 132, 133, 134, 135, etc. may be employed. The angles between portions 132435 and the backing 131 are adjusted to produce the writing effect.

Instead of multiplying the number of surfaces :1 single surface of gradually changing inclination may be employed for vertical lines as shown in Fig. 7. in this figure the backing member 231 has a stamped out portion 232 which varies in inclination from end 233 to end 234 so that gradually increasing amounts of front reflecting surface 280 become visible. For horizontal lines a plurality of blocks or stamped out portions must still be employed.

. For large signs, as many as 300 or more separate blocks may be required and since the total angular change is limited somewhat less than 90 this requires that the angles of the reflecting surfaces blocks dilier by an angle of less than 18 minutes. In order to simplify the construction of the sign the modified form of device shown in Fig. 8 is employed. According to this figure the sign is dividcd'into sections 121, 122, 123, 124, each of these sections being, for example, similar to the sign of Fig. 2. Instead of having a gradually changing reflectance angle from the beginning to the end of the sign, each of the sections has a series of blocks similar to that shown in Fig. 2- and each series of the respective sections may begin and end with blocks having substantially the same reflective angles. In order to be sure that the successive parts of the sign come into view in the proper sequence the sections 121-124 are placed at an angle with respect to each other. The angle between the section members 121 and 122 is selected to provide a continuous writing sign. For example, if the letter M of Fig. 2 forms the first section 121 of the sign and comprises 46 blocks 32-77 with reflecting coated sides in which the angle between the reflecting side of the first block 32 and the backing 30 differs from the corresponding angle of block 2'7 by about 14, then the difference between the front or reflecting angle of two successive blocks is about 18 minutes. The two sections 121 and 122 of Fig. 8 will, therefore, be placed at an angle of 14 with respect to each other. Where sections 122, 123, and 124 contain approximately the same number of blocks the angles be tween these sides will also be about 14.

Itwill be realized that where the angular difference between any two successive reflecting surfaces of a series differs by a constant amount the rate at which the sign writes will be substantially constant. It is also possible to retard, accelerate, stop, or reverse the direction of the writing cfiect by adjusting of the angles and order of the various blocks or stamped out portions of the sign. Or, if the angles of any given sequence are similar the whole sequence may be made to appear simultane ously.

It will be seen that the broad idea of the sign is that various parts of a sign which are at first invisible suddenly become visible. It is also possible to block out certain parts of the sign to make these parts invisible after they have become visible.

The features and principles underlying the invention described above in connection with specific exemplifica- 4 skilled in the art many other isaccordingly desired that the be limited to any specific feations will suggest to those modifications thereof. It appended claims shall not ture or details thereof.

I claim:

1. In a writing advertizing sign of the type adapted to be placed at the side of a road at an angle with respect to the length of the road and with a first side edge region thereof closer to the road than the opposite side region, a backing member and at least one series of a multiplicity of elements projecting outwardly from said backing member, at least a plurality of the elements of the series having a relatively small height with respect to the height of the sign, at least a portion of said series comprising elements which are spaced both laterally and vertically from each other, each of said projecting elements having a substantially flat surface region facing generally toward said first side edge region of the sign, said flat surface region of each of said series of projections making an angle with respect to the backing memher which is away from the perpendicular more than the corresponding angle of all of'the elements which follow it in the series, a reflecting material on the said flat surface region of each of the elements of the series whereby when the sign is placed at the side of a road and is approached by a vehicle with lights along the path of the road the respective elements of the series become operative to reflect light in a predetermined order, until at a certain point wherein the vehicle is close to said first side of the sign reflected light is obtained from substantially all of said elements.

2. The device as set forth in claim 1 in which the refiecting material on the flat surface of each of a plurality of said projecting elements extends beyond the limits of the projecting element itself.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 in which said projecting elements are separately formed elements which are attached to the backing member.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1 in which said projecting elements are projections formed from slots in the backing member. I

5. The device as set forth in claim 1 in which a plurality of said projecting elements contain at least one slot parallel to the flat surface re ion thereof, and an additional strip of reflecting material in said slot.

6. A writing advertizing sign comprising a plurality of sections with adjacent side edges, each section having at least one series of projections with reflecting surfaces as set forth in claim 1, the said sections being positioned at an angle to each other.

7. The sign of claim 6 in which the first projection of the respective series of each section has its reflecting material at approximately the same angle with respect to the back of-the section and in which the angle between the sections is adjusted to provide at least one continuously writing legend across the several sections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 824,860 Grove July 3, 1906 1,967,658 Buescher et al July 24, 1934 2,432,928 Palmquist Dec. 16, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 389,497 Germany Feb. 8, 1924 407,083 Great Britain Mar. 12, 1934 112,474 Australia Feb. 4, 1941 

